The Watering Hole

My Peavey 3120 was fun. Stupid gain. But after some time with it, the gain sounded generic, and the clean channel was rather dark.

I sold it on Ebay, so it is gone. I've been thinking hard between the Hughes and Kettner Switchblade 100 head, and the Hughes and Kettner Grandmeister 36 head. What these two amps offer is built in effects, and 128 programmable channels. All tube tone, but with the complete programability of a modeling amp. The Grandmeister is sold new for $1199.  The Switchblade 100 head can be found used for around $750. I've listened to a lot of youtube samples of both, and I'm leaning toward the Switchblade. The tones aren't that much different. They both have the four channels, and they both have 128 programmable presets. And they both run off the same floorboard.
If you haven't heard these amps...youtube them. Killer tone and flexabilty. And one will be mine very soon.

The Grandmeister 36 is pretty incredible.  I especially like that you can run it at 36, 18, 5, or 1 watt.  The gain on those things is insane. I think the gain on the crunch channel is more than I have in any rig or pedal I own.  And there are two more channels of gain on top of that.

Found a Switchblade 100 watt 2x12 combo in Tulsa for $440, and made the trip today and grabbed it. Out of the gates, I like it.  The previous owner didn't have a clue on how to tweak it, so no wonder he sold it so low. His presets were junk.

After about 2 hours with it tonight, I have the best clean tone I've ever had, and some pretty solid chunk tones. The Crunch channel is absolutely sweet in the blues area (see Thomas Blug videos with this thing). The delay on this thing is KILLER. As much as I like the really raunchy Brit gain in the 2 higher gain modes , I think I'm going to holla at Bob at Eurotubes to help tame those two modes down a hair.  With that and few more days tweaking, I think I'm really going to like this thing. Just stupid versatile with 4 voice settings, on board DSP effects, and 128 programmable presets. While 100% all tube.

BTW....as you can see in the pic....I'm also running it to the 2x12 cab I created from my dead Vetta (I pulled the head out, wired it as a 16 ohm cab, and installed a 1/4 inch input jack). A 100 watt tube amp running through 4 speakers. Retarded. But awesome at the same time.

As was once stated (or asked)  by a previous member in his signature....'Are you adequately prepared to rock?'  I can say yes, yes I am :)